Creating an alphabet matching puzzle game

The theme for this month’s #BostikBlogger craft is ‘Back to school’. I was inspired by the letter stickers in this month’s craft box to create a fun alphabet matching puzzle game. This is perfect for a back to school craft and learning activity.

You will need:

A sheet of white card
Patterned paper
A ruler
A pencil
A glue stick (we used a Bostik blu stick)
Letter stickers
Coloured pens
Scissors
A small fabric bag or a small box

1) Use the pencil and ruler to draw a grid on the piece of card measuring 20cm x 20cm with horizontal and vertical lines every 2.5cm. You should have a grid of 8 squares x 8 squares. Cut out around the edge of this grid.

2) Turn the piece of card over and use the glue stick to cover the back with glue. Place the piece of patterned paper on top and trim the edges.

3) Turn the piece of card back over and stick letter stickers in the first 26 squares to create the alphabet squares.

4) Draw a picture of something that starts with each letter in the next 26 squares and colour them in. I chose fairly simple pictures, such as an apple, a bee, a cat etc. If drawing isn’t your forte then you could print out some small pictures to represent each letter and stick them on each square instead.

5) Carefully cut out each square. You could keep a couple of the blank ones for spares if you wish.

6) Decorate the fabric bag or box with any remaining letter stickers and store the alphabet letter and picture squares inside.

The alphabet letter and picture squares can be used for a variety of games and learning activities. I started off by giving Sophie the letter squares which she then put in alphabetical order while I lined up the picture squares for her. She then matched each picture square to the correct letter.

We also used the squares to play a matching pairs game. This time we turned all the squares over so the patterned side was facing up. We then took it in turns to turn over two squares and see who could match the most pairs. This is a good game for helping with memory. If 26 pairs are too much for younger children, you could reduce the number of pairs used in this game.